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As we’ve entered into a new decade with new web and social technologies continuing to advance at warp speed, new buyer behaviors continue to emerge. Some new buyer behaviors, such as informational search, are no longer emerging but have crossed over into accepted reality. With other new buyer behaviors, such as those related to social influence, we are only getting a glimpse of at this moment in time. The given in the current state of B2B marketing and sales is that buyer behavior and complex buying processes have changed.
One of the toughest challenges in the past few years has been to figure out how to respond to these changes. One place to start is for executives to ask a bold question: are we still selling like it’s 1999? An especially valid question for companies that have traditionally been sales driven and the dominance of a sales culture has reigned for several decades. Companies have changed and responded - but have the changes been more cosmetically enhancing or truly systemic in nature? I think there is a big difference and let’s look at a few important areas:
Budgeting
Let’s start with the money trail. Has the proportion of budgets... Read more

The raging waters of the sales and marketing alignment debate continues to make its’ way through the halls of corporate America. This is despite recent entrance of social technology enabled systems and processes all professing to be the cure that remedies this debate. This is definitely becoming like the $60m question we all hope to win with an answer no one has come up with yet. Having spent the last decade or more in the arena of buyer persona development and researching buyer behaviors within business cultures, I’ve come to a conclusion that there are no silver bullets and no specific technology that is going to be the one thing that magically gives us the Rodney King moment – “can’t we all get along?” What is apparent from a qualitative standpoint is that this is more of a business cultural issue.
What did this previous paragraph have to do with the title I’m sure some of you are asking right now? From a business culture perspective, we are seeing a recently introduced new domain of content marketing born out of changes in technology and buyer behaviors as well as the area of sales enablement attempting to make selling performance more efficient. ... Read more

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As we continue to experience the evolution of the social age, one thing we can be sure about is the march of progression will pick up its’ steady beat. The evolution or as some may call it – the revolution – will continue to happen and most likely at an increasing rate. The new social buyer is an outcome of this evolution and it has forever changed the dynamics of the seller and buyer relationship.
Buyer behavior most certainly will continue to undergo major transformations each time a new technology is introduced that alters the seller and buyer relationship. Most of what we’ve witnessed in the past few years has been related to the impact of social media and networking technologies. Here is a key issue facing organizations today: each time a new social technology is introduced, it ultimately alters the buying behaviors of the new social buyer persona. Adding further to the complexity of this issue is that company’s today are struggling to keep pace and adapt their marketing and selling teams to the rapid pace of modified buyer behavior.
This issue and the surrounding complexities call into question, for organizations today, their readiness for adapting to... Read more

The new buyer experience economy has resulted in shifting the economic value of many sales and marketing tactics over the past couple of years. One approach whose value is on the rise is that of Lead Nurturing. It’s no wonder why – we have seen major alterations of buyer behavior and buying patterns with technology enabling more buyer control over the majority of the buying cycle process. This makes nurturing a key element of preventing buyers from disengaging from the buying cycle.

The approach taken towards lead nurturing could make a huge difference. With the concept of lead nurturing still in many respects a new one, companies are struggling on exactly what to do and perhaps how to implement lead nurturing. A most common approach, of what can be referred to as “picking and choosing” activities, may actually be hindering the further evolution of lead nurturing. Here are just a few reasons why: